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the collected data is aggregated and anonymized. In reality, employees express
anxiety at the possibility that their bathroom activities are not private.
(Humanyze addresses that concern in its FAQ: “Question: Do we track when
employees go to the bathroom? Answer: No, the Humanyze Badge does not
track employees in the bathroom.”)
Humanyze CEO and cofounder Ben Waber says the company’s goal is to help
organizations design workplaces that are optimized for productivity and
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we look at communication and collaboration data—stripped out of all of its
content and anonymized—which includes workplace sensors, calendar, chat and
email,” Waber says.
The Humanyze concept came from the MIT Media Lab, which discovered that
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employee communications than their original idea: to cull that information
from recording face-to-face interactions, chat transcripts, and email body and
subject lines.
If you can say anything for the Humanyze badge, it’s that it can be easily
removed. Which is not the case with microchips.
CHIP IN THE SHOULDER
At Three Square Market, a Wisconsin-based vending-machine supplier, over 80
employees had an RFID microchip inserted into their hands—voluntarily. They
can use them to swipe into work, sign onto their desktops, and pay for food.
This story has been sunnily depicted,
with headlines like “This Company
Embeds Microchips In Its Employees,
and They Love It” and “Why Most of
Three Square Market’s Employees
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company promoted its plans to create a
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among other medical uses.